It’s time to expand choice and access to health care | Opinion

As Florida legislators prepare for the 2019 legislative session, overcoming our state’s health care challenges should be among the priorities topping the docket. Florida now ranks among the states with the worst health care access in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report, besting only Mississippi and Alaska.

In fact, the federal government has designated 275 primary care shortage areas statewide, and some 6.1 million Floridians lack adequate access to primary care. Solving Florida’s access woes will take political will, but the good news is, much can be accomplished to expand access without adding a single dollar to the state’s health care budget.

While there are a variety of factors accounting for Florida’s poor ratings, the bottom line is that we have an insufficient supply of primary care providers, and current state laws limit the capacity of nurse practitioners to meet the growing demand for care.

In testimony last week before the House Health Care Quality Subcommittee, Taynin Kopanos of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners testified that right-sizing licensure laws would enable NPs to practice to the full extent of their education and clinical training – improving access, strengthening patient choice and reducing the cost of health care across the state.

This model of licensure, known as full practice authority, has proven successful in states from Arizona to North Dakota and Nevada, where they have seen drastic increases in workforce numbers and patients’ access to care. These states are now experiencing lower hospital readmission rates and lower overall costs for patients.

According to the state Department of Health, Florida currently has over 29,000 active, licensed NPs. Right-sizing licensure laws — so that they can deliver the care they are educated, trained and licensed to provide — will expand access and encourage more NPs to practice in the state.

Kopanos says giving patients a choice of health care provider and NPs full practice authority “is the only solution that is at no added cost to the state, no delay in benefit to the consumer, and it is the only solution that has a track record of 40 years of success in other states around the country.”

This debate isn’t new to Florida. With 22 states, Washington. D.C.. and two U.S. territories right-sizing laws to empower their NP workforces, it’s hard to justify continued inaction at a time when patient demand in Florida continues to increase.

Luckily, House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, agrees it’s time for our state to catch up by finding practical ways to lower costs by identifying onerous regulations that needlessly prohibit access to care. And following last week’s hearing, Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-Pinellas, introduced SB 972, Innovation in the Advanced Practice Registered Nursing Workforce, as a counterpart to efforts in the House.

Florida lawmakers have the opportunity to embrace this patient-centric effort to change the health care status quo. It’s time they deliver the affordable, efficient and high-quality health care system all Floridians deserve.

Kathleen Perrott Wilson, PhD, CPNP, FNP– BC, is based in Tallahassee and practices full time as an endocrinology specialist. She is a member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and serves the Region 1 Director for the Florida Nurse Practitioner Network.

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